The Darkness Of An Eclipse
by Asha Childly
Summary: The crew decide to join the Fellowship back in Canada. But first, Kaitlyn, Rob, Gabriel, Anna, Lewis, and Lydia want to go back and visit Whiffen Spit just once more. What misadventures will occur this time? Surprise crack couples! Hope you enjoy them!
1. Chapter 1

**It is my deepest pleasure to have you reading my very first _published_ fan fiction. So you know, I am writing this story with my friend, Haydon Darescog. Some of you may already know some of her work. This chapter is a sort of 'sample chapter' and we hope it will do well. Hopefully it'll show if people actually are able to find/enjoy the story, or we're just wasting our time. You're critiques are vital to the story, whether they are good or bad. Also, thank you to those few people who didn't skip over this whole thing, thinking it was a waste of time.**

**I do not own Dark Visions, nor do I own the Twilight Saga. Although we have slightly modernized the technology for sake of ease**

**This chapter was courtesy of Asha Childly**

I can't believe we're finally going back, Kaitlyn Fairchild thought excitedly. She longed to feel the fresh breeze that blew from the ocean. She hurriedly climbed in the back of the car, joining Lewis Chao and Gabriel Wolfe. Anna Whiteraven and Rob Kessler climbed into the front, Lydia Zetes driving. The first to pull out, Lydia sped down the street. Behind them, Bri, Renny, and Marisol rode behind them in a car Kaitlyn didn't recognize, but decided it belonged to Mr. Zetes. Of course, he wouldn't be needing it anymore. After them, Joyce, Mac, Frost, and Tamsin pulled out in Joyce's convertible.

"You know," Kaitlyn said, leaning back in her seat, "I'd much rather visit Whiffen Spit again. Just for old time's sake." She sensed a wave of agreement in the web.

"Yeah, I miss that old place," Rob agreed. No surprise. He may have handed to torch off to Gabriel, but his feelings for Kaitlyn would always be the same. That wasn't the kind of thing that just went away.

The group decided that they would return to Whiffen Spit. Everyone had agreed easily to the idea. Even Gabriel only asked that this time they didn't get sent into the creek because of an astral projection of a goat. Lydia and Rob decided to take the 5 up to Olympia, then switching to the 101 to Port Angeles. It was much faster that way. Rob called Joyce and Marisol to explain the change of plans, telling them that they would meet them at the Queen Charlotte Islands maybe a day or so after. Surprisingly, the two women were perfectly okay with the plan.

Once everyone had agreed, Lydia pulled out onto the highway. They had lost Marisol and Joyce shortly after Rob had phoned them. Now they were, for once in their life, free. They weren't running away. No evil psychics were trying to kill them. Kaitlyn finally felt free to just relax. She snuggled up against Gabriel's side. He wrapped his arm around her, holding her to him. She could feel his child-like joy simply emanating from his body. Just having her close to him seemed to change him, both mentally and physically. Even now, he seemed...brighter. It was as if someone had put a candle inside him and now it was glowing out. And she knew, just from the way her held her, that he never wanted to let her go.

In front of them, Lydia's fingers gripped the wheel tightly, turning her knuckles white. She thought she'd be happy. Her father, the evil Mr. Zetes, was finally dead. She thought she'd be relieved, that she'd finally be able to live her life without fear. But even now, she still couldn't relax. She peered into her rear-view mirror. Kaitlyn was curled tightly to Gabriel's side. She envied her. All she wanted right now was someone who would hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay.

"Lydia!" Rob exclaimed from beside her just as a car horn blared from behind them. She jumped at the sounds and swerved back into her lane. Then she gave up and just pulled over.

"Oh, God," she groaned, resting her head on the steering wheel. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry! My head's just not in the right place right now."

"Maybe someone else should drive for a little while," he suggested, resting a hand on her shoulder. She nodded, wiping away tears. Rob turned around in his seat.

"Anybody want to drive?" he asked. From the way Lewis's eyes widened, it didn't look like he was up for the challenge. Gabe didn't look like he planned on moving for a while, and quite frankly, he didn't trust Kait to drive anymore. Looking beside him, he noticed that Anna was fast asleep. That left him as the only option. He undid his seatbelt and lifted Lydia over him. Once seated, he refastened and brought the ancient car back to life. Lydia settled in, eventually falling asleep.

Lewis sighed. He was afraid to drive. He had his licence, he'd passed the test, but he just couldn't do it. And Lydia was sobbing. He probably looked like a spineless, pathetic, useless blob of nothingness to her.

Suddenly, he felt something strange in the web. It felt like someone—_Kaitlyn_—was definitely not happy.

_Lewis!_ she gasped, using their silent, telepathic communication, the ability Gabriel had so generously bestowed upon the five of them.

_What?_ he grumbled back the same way.

_Don't talk about yourself that way,_ she chastised. Lewis rubbed his forehead.

_You heard that? _he thought back. _I thought you were asleep._ He paused for a moment, then thought, _It doesn't matter, thought. It's still true._

Kaitlyn's eyebrows furrowed, but her eyes were still closed.

_You're not spineless, or pathetic, or useless! Especially not useless,_ she told him. _Without you, I never would have been able to open the panel, and then we wouldn't have found the crystal!_

Lewis thought about that. He _had_ been the only one who knew how to open the panel that lead to a secret room which contained the evil crystal Mr. Zetes had used to do evil things.

_Exactly!_ she encouraged. _Plus, you're the greatest, sweetest, nicest, cutest psychokinetic I've ever met!_

Lewis flushed slightly

_And,_ Kaitlyn added quickly, _I bet Lydia feels the same way._

Looking deeper into Lewis's mind, Kaitlyn saw how he saw Lydia. In his eyes, she was gorgeous. She saw a picture of Lydia, her soft, light face bright and lively. Her dark hair waved slightly in the gentle breeze. Her eyes sparkled like thousands of diamonds. Kait opened her eyes. They were sad.

"Oh, Lewis," she whispered. He sighed.

"I know," he said.

"If only you knew," she said. His ears perked up and she decided to continue. "She really likes you. If only you had the guts to say something to her."

This was not what Lewis was expecting. He figured he'd get something like _"It's too bad that you don't know how to stay in you league" _or _"You're so hopelessly infatuated with her"._ He turned to look at Kaitlyn. She was looking back at him, only her head turning toward him.

_Really?_ he said. He would hate for Lydia to hear him if she woke up. _She actually..._likes_ me?_ Kaitlyn smiled.

_Yep, _she said. _She thinks your sweet, and I think you should go for it._

Lewis was encouraged. He nodded, grinning ear to ear. Kaitlyn gave him one last nod, then curled her body back up against Gabriel's. Lewis sat back. Kaitlyn waited until he looked like he wasn't listening. Then she nudged him gently with her head.

_Are you awake?_ she asked softly. Gabe adjusted his sitting position underneath her.

_Yes, _he answered. She smiled gently. _Why?_

_Remember that beach you showed me when they were keeping me in the tank?_ she asked. Gabriel stiffened. He didn't like to think about those—how many had it been? Fifteen?—hours she'd spent being tortured in the silent tank. But it wasn't just her being tortured; he'd hurt himself, cutting his arms just to keep her sane.

_Yes, I remember._

_Well, I want to go there someday._

Gabriel sighed. He moved his hand farther down Kait's back.

_We'll see,_ was all he said.

Rob listened to Kait and Gabe behind him. He really, truly did love her, and she him. He _needed_ her. Not just her energy but her presence in itself. How long, he wondered. How long had she loved him, hidden what she felt for him? How long had he been lied to?

So many questions Rob wanted to ask. So many questions...he knew couldn't be answered. He'd told Kait himself that she was free to do whatever she wanted, to love whoever she wanted. But he knew. He knew that something like that, something like what he felt for Kaitlyn, doesn't just go away after she starts dating someone else. It doesn't go away even if _you_ start dating someone else. That's something that stays with you forever.

Wow, he mused. Less than a week ago I learned how to love. And now, after only that short week, the girl who'd shown me to love showed me how to hurt, as well.

After several hours, Rob finally reached Olympia. He pulled off at an exit into town to get something for them to eat and do whatever else needed doing. It was getting late and they still had three hours to get to Port Angeles. Rob bought something for them to eat, using most of the money they had brought with them. Once everyone was done and the car was refilled with gas, they got back on the road and got on to the 101, headed for Port Angeles.

The next three hours were dull. Gabriel decided to drive them to Port Angeles. He complained about how much the stick shift sucked on multiple occasions. For the rest of the drive, everyone pretty much just slept. It had been a rough day for all of them.

Finally, Gabriel announced that they'd reached Port Angeles. They'd made it. Fifteen hours in one go. Gabriel turned off the highway and headed into the city streets. Outside, the sun was just about to set, casting a red-gold shadow over the city. The shadow moved his mind to Kaitlyn, the way that she had always seemed to be red-gold to his mind.

"I can't believe your car actually made it this far!" Lewis exclaimed, breaking Gabriel's concentration.

Of course, he'd spoken to soon. As if on cue, the engine sputtered and the machine refused to budge.

"Great going," Gabriel said. Lewis looked like he was trying to turn invisible.

"It doesn't matter," Lydia groaned. "This thing was on its last legs anyways. We probably just eased it's pain."

In front of them, a police cruiser was parked on the curb. Kaitlyn and Rob got out. Gabriel stayed in his seat. He had a thing about cops.

As Kait and Rob got to the driver's window of the cruiser, they noticed that someone was inside. Kaitlyn tapped lightly on the window. The cop rolled it down.

"Can I help you, Ma'am?" he asked. She noted that he wasn't really wearing a uniform, although he did have a—what are those things called? Weapon belts? He was slightly balding and had a moustache like a caterpillar growing on his upper lip.

"Um, yeah. You see our car broke down just behind you there"—she jerked her head toward Lydia's car—"and we were wondering if you could help us."

"Well, there's lots of nice motels and inns and things around here—"

"Another problem," Rob interrupted. "We don't have any money."

"Oh," was all the officer said. He seemed to be juggling alternate options. "I suppose that my daughter and I would be happy to accommodate you for the night. If that isn't to...weird?"

_Gabriel would be thrilled,_ Kaitlyn thought sarcastically to Rob. He nodded his agreement.

_Guys, _he thought toward the car. _What's your opinion on staying in a cops house for the night?_

Anna and Lewis responded with a quick _Not a problem._ But Gabriel, as expected, did not agree.

_No way am I staying at a cop's place! Every police station in the country has a warrant for my arrest! God knows he could have wanted pictures of me all over his house! I've killed two people, I'm _still_ violating my parole, and I've been working for a mad man for...two, three days!_

_Gabriel, it's our only chance!_ Kait encouraged. Suddenly, it seemed her thoughts were veiled from everyone but him. Gabe's opinion seemed to change awfully quickly, but he regained his composure and simply said, _Fine._

The cop looked utterly confused. All he'd seen were two teenagers standing silently by his window for almost two minutes. Then Kaitlyn looked grateful and sweet.

"We would be honoured," she said. "You hospitality would be appreciated."

The cop smiled. "Good to hear. The name's Swan. Charlie Swan. Just you kids get in the car. Double up if you need to."

Laid back cop, Kait thought. She waved the other four over to the car. Officer Swan—later correcting her as _Chief_ Swan—was surprised to see so many kids, but kept his cool as they piled in the back of the cruiser.

"Next stop: Forks, Washington."


	2. Chapter 2

**Welcome to Chapter 2. Sorry it took so long, but Haydon was away in Québec City for the end of year trip. We're glad that you've stuck with us through this time frame.**

**This chapter was courtesy of Haydon Darescog.**

It had started to rain. Not that Bella had anything against the rain in theory, but it made driving her crappy old truck even harder. Back in Arizona, rain had been rare and when she was little it had been an exciting treat. But here in Forks it was an almost daily occurrence, and the novelty had worn off in about a week. 

The wiper blades screeched as they swept back and forth across her dirty windshield, drowning out the sound of the mix tape (technically a CD) in her stereo. Edward had given it to her the week before, and as cheesy as it seemed, she loved it. "Just because." he had said when he gave it to her, with a tiny kiss on the cheek. It was full or her favorite songs, as well as a recording of her lullaby. She smiled. She would get to see him soon, since Charlie was out in Port Angeles monitoring the highway. Apparently, the station there had requested assistance because of the strange disappearances that were happening more and more in the town.  
She knew where those people were going. Edward and his family had told her the week before that they thought Victoria was creating a vampire "army", to try and get past the Cullens and the wolves to get to her. It had terrified her when she found out, not because her life was in danger (it was all the time these days), but because everyone she knew and loved was going to get drawn into it. Edward, Alice, the rest of the Cullens, Jacob, Billy, Seth and the other wolves, even Angela, Mike, Ben and the rest of her classmates. And Charlie. Bella knew that if Charlie got wind of any of this, he would throw himself onto the battlefield with no hesitation. And he would be killed. She shivered partly at the thought, and partly because she had somehow not noticed how cold it had gotten while she had been driving. 

Just then, something slammed into the side of her truck. She let out a high-pitched scream. It was Victoria, she knew it, coming to get her at last. The devil woman had somehow slipped past the wolves and the vampires and found her. And she was leading her to Charlie. Bella slammed on the brakes and swerved onto a side street at the last moment, feeling the front tires ride up on the curb for a brief second before they came crashing back down to the pavement, sending a jolt through the whole vehicle. 

"Bella!" a voice shouted, cutting through her terror to the small rational part of her brain that was still functioning. It had been at least ten seconds since the impact, which was ample time for a vampire to tear through the metal body of the truck to get to her. But there was no sound of ripping metal, no snarling mouth at her throat, and no pain. He heart rate was slowing, and her brain had finally recovered enough to recognize the voice that had called out to her. 

"Edward?" she whispered. Strong, cold arms wrapped around her and she looked up into his other-worldly face.

"I'm so sorry," he breathed into her hair "I'm so sorry I scared you." He rocked her back and forth for a moment, rubbing small circles into her back as he consoled her. "I wouldn't have done that, but there's someone at your house." Bella's head shot up, grabbing his shirt to keep her balance. "I was on my way and I heard them," he gestured to his head. She tried to speak but he started to talk over her. "I don't think Charlie is at home," he answered her unspoken question. She felt a wave of relief wash over her and for an instant she forgot about the stranger in her house. Then Edward dragged her back to reality. "It's strange. I can tell someone is there, but I can't tell exactly what their thinking. It's like this person is thinking ten different thoughts at once."

Someone or something, Bella thought. What with all the vampires and werewolves running around, she really wouldn't be surprised if this new adversary was some other kind of horrible beastie. Like Quill said; she was good with weird. Edward had kept talking while she thought, and she scrambled to catch up on what she had missed. "—gives me a headache just to listening to it," he said. "I'm going to drive you to my house, and then Emmett and I will go check it out," he told her, as he put the truck in reverse and pulled back onto the highway.

"But what if—" She was cut off by a look from him. She sighed. There was no point arguing with Edward on the topic of her safety. "Could you at least get Alice to check it out before you go? Please?" He gave her a tiny smile and a nod, and began to drive to the Cullen house. 

"Make sure she stays put." Edward said seriously to Alice. The smaller girl rolled her eyes and laughed.

"I still think it will be fine. Not lethal, at least." She had looked into the future, and while she wasn't completely sure since she couldn't see this new stranger, she was somehow certain the confrontation was not going to turn violent.

Bella wasn't so sure. Of course she loved Alice to pieces and would trust her with her life, but she still could not be 100% sure of her visions. They could change in a split second, and not being able to see someone had lead them to one very, very close call already. 

Carlisle had agreed to go with Edward and Emmett, leaving Bella, Alice, Rosalie, Esme, and Jasper to wait. "Be careful." she whispered to Edward. Please, please, be careful. He pulled her into a crushing hug before kissing her briefly and running after his father and brother. 

After one of the longest half-hours of her life, Bella heard the faint thumping of feet approaching, and looked up to find Carlisle already standing in front of her perch on the front porch. A fraction of a second later, she was joined by the rest of the Cullens who had stayed behind. Bella stood up quickly, stumbling slightly. Carlisle caught her by the arm, and she looked up into his pale, beautiful face.

"Well?" she breathed. "How did it go?"

He had a strange little coy smile playing across his features, like he was in on some joke that she wasn't.

"Oh, very well." She waited for more, but he didn't elaborate. She raised her eyebrows at him. He chuckled and said "I think you better just come see it for yourself." 

He turned around, offering her his back. She was used to this, although she had never really enjoyed the vampire way of travel. He bent down and she climbed onto his back, locking her arms tightly around her future father-in-law's (it still sounded weird to her) neck. He took off at a sprint, the others following behind. She could tell how much Carlisle enjoyed this, just like Edward did. It was one of the perks of being undead he had told her once. Carlisle had a smile stretched across his perfect features, and he even closed his eyes briefly, until she whacked him on the chest. He laughed and apologized quickly. 

When they reached the house, Bella could see lights on in the living room and kitchen, and silhouettes of at least six or seven people standing or sitting in various places. She looked to her ride questioningly, but he just waved her towards the door. Walking up the front steps, she moved to knock, and then remembered it was her house. She blushed slightly and pushed the door open. 

Immediately, a silence fell over the room. The faces of the people inside—nine, she could now see—all turned to look at her. She was about to utter something close to "WTF" when a girl who looked about her age with wavy red hair stepped forward. As Bella met her eyes, she almost gasped. They were blue, with circles of indigo emanating from around her pupil, like a bulls-eye. After her experience as to what strange eye color meant, she immediately thought "vampire". She took a small step back, but then realized that that was impossible. The girl had freckles and Bella could see the flush rising on her face as they stood staring at each other.

"Are you Bella Swan?"


	3. Chapter 3

**We're so glad you've followed us this far. I just hope you can stand to wait for the rest of the chapters (goodness knows, there'll probably be lots)! Enjoy Chapter 3!**

**This chapter was courtesy of Asha Childly**

"Are you Bella Swan?" Kaitlyn asked. She waited a few minutes for her response. When all she got was a gaping mouth, she gave up and continued with her introduction. "I'm Kaitlyn Fairchild. It's so nice of you and your father to give us somewhere to stay for the night!"

Kaitlyn gave the girl another smile, and lifted her hand to shake it. When she released it, if fell loosely to Bella's side. She threw another smile over her should and returned to her seat on the couch beside Gabriel. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. His warmth felt wonderful against her chilled skin. Beside her was Rob, Anna perched at his feet. Lewis and Lydia sat on the floor across from the couch. They all looked intently at Emmett.

"—and then the bear charged. I fought back the best I could, but he was stronger. His huge front paw came up and scratched me across the face. I was knocked unconscious. I thought for sure I was dead," he told them. His story telling seemed unrealistic—how do you survive being mauled bear, and then _still_ look as perfect as he does?—but so well-told that anybody could believe him after listening to it for hours. And the few hours part wouldn't be hard to accomplish. His husky voice was mesmerizing. It made you forget where you were and what you should be doing. All you could do was listen to him. You could even see the story unfolding in your head. "I woke up later, moving faster than a speeding car on the interstate in the arms of a beautiful angel. That's when I was positive that I'd died and gone to heaven. Things are pretty fuzzy after that. The angel brought me to God and he made me better. I learned it was actually Rosalie who brought me to Dr. Cullen, who fixed me up. I was so grateful that I thought I owed them my life. That's why I decided to stay and live with them."

"We were all shocked to see him survive," Edward added, giving a crooked smile to Emmett, who smiled widely back. I would be too, Kaitlyn thought. "He looked pretty bad when Rose brought him in. If she'd been a minute later, there'd have been nothing left of him." Kaitlyn shuddered, imagining how he must have looked after that. She snuggled closer to Gabriel for support, and he pulled her closer in response.

Anna, still sitting at Rob's feet, looked amazed.

"So you were right here in Forks?" her soft, chime-like voice rang. He nodded.

"Just outside here, actually," he corrected. Anna muttered a "Wow" softly and he laughed a deep, booming laugh. Gabriel still seemed disbelieving. His face was a scowl.

_There's a part to this story that we're not getting,_ he said through the link. Across from them, Edward's expression changed, and his head tilted slightly to the right. It was like he had heard something very quiet and he was waiting to see if he would hear it again. Or like a dog listening to a high-pitched noise. Kaitlyn seemed to be the only one who noticed.

_I think Gabe's right,_ she thought, eyeing Edward suspiciously all the while. _Think there are a _lot_ of things being kept from us._

After this was thought, Edward abruptly looked away. It was like he'd heard what she'd said, then picked up on the subtle hint she'd lay hidden in her words. Kaitlyn was sure that this wasn't right. She faked a yawn and stretched, getting up off the couch.

"I'm exhausted," she said. "I think I'll head to bed." Charlie nodded.

"Up the stairs and down the hall, either side of the bathroom," he told her. She smiled gratefully, heading for the stairs. On her way, she grabbed her art things, bringing them with her. Gabriel watched her curiously, waiting for an explanation. When he didn't get one, he followed her up. Charlie seemed confused, waited a moment for him to say where he was going, then gave up and continued listening to stories.

_Kaitlyn? Are you—_ Gabriel began before she cut him off.

"No!" she hissed, trying not to be heard. They were in the room to the left of the bathroom, which appeared to be a guest room. She rushed to the door and closed it tightly. Gabriel watched her, one eyebrow raised. "Don't think. Just talk. I'm pretty sure he can hear you."

"Who?"

"_Edward!_"The name came out through her teeth. She ran back and sat on the bed, placing her drawing utensils on her lap.

"What are you doing, Kait?" Gabe asked. She didn't look up, but her eyebrows pulled together.

"I'm looking for an answer," she explained. From the way she said it, you would think that the answer was obvious and that he should have easily figured it out by himself. She looked at him, hoping she had cleared things up. Gabriel still looked confused. She sighed. "I'm going to find out what their hiding from us. All of them. Edward, Emmett, Dr. Cullen, and everyone else in their little—what would you call it? Clan? Coven? Who cares. Anyway, I'm going to find out what they're not telling us."

"And how do you expect to do that?" he asked. Kaitlyn groaned.

"Open your mind, Gabe!" she hissed, trying not to shout. "I'm going to search...whatever it is that gives me my pictures, and draw it!"

Gabriel was insulted, obviously, but Kaitlyn didn't seem to care. She just looked back at her sketchpad. She searched her mind for something. _Anything._ She just needed to know what they were keeping a secret. Maybe even why. She waited for the vision to come, like they always did. She let her mind go completely blank and her hands completely limp. That way her mind could just do what it had to do.

Suddenly, her hand started cramping and itching. It began moving across the paper on its own. She let it do what it needed to do. Colors flowed across the page. Lots of greens and browns. And then, a lot of red. Not as much as green, but still a lot. Finally, her hand stopped moving and she dared to see what she'd drawn.

The finished image was horrifying. It caused a bloodcurdling scream to pierce through the house. Gabriel nearly jumped right out of his skin and rushed to Kaitlyn's side. She threw the drawing across the room. It didn't matter where it landed, as long as it was away from her.

"What is it?" Gabe asked. "What's wrong?" All Kaitlyn gave him for an answer was a hand, shaking in fear, pointing in the direction of the drawing. She stopped pointing and clung to Gabriel. He held her to his body, rubbing her back.

"What's going on?" Rob boomed as he burst through the door. He saw Kaitlyn clinging to Gabriel and was immediately furious. "What'd you do to her?"

"I didn't do anything, Kessler!" he shouted back. "She just drew a picture and it freaked her out."

"What's it a drawing of?" Rob asked. Gabriel rolled his eyes. Everybody seemed to be panicking, deep down, though.

"I don't know, I didn't look," he said. "Look for yourself. It's right over there."

Rob crossed the room and picked up the drawing, looking it over. He didn't seem nearly as frightened as Kait had been, but he still looked either shocked or disgusted. It was hard to tell.

"Jeez, Kait draws some weird things," he said. "First it was the third eye thing, then the goat..."

The picture _was_ weird. Like something you see in a horror film or a haunted house. It was a man in a forest. He was bent over an animal—a bear or something else large. And there was blood. There was _a lot _of blood. There was blood _everywhere._ And it was all coming from the animal. Coming from the animal, and going into the man. But the most horrifying thing about the picture was the man's eyes. They were like Rob's, only lighter. They were almost a light amber color. And they were full of hatred.

The man looked savage. He stared out of the picture, looking into the eyes of whoever was looking back. It almost felt like he could suck your soul right out of your body. There was blood dripping down from his mouth and off his chin. And on his lips there was an evil, monstrous, slightly crooked smile.

"Vampires," Rob whispered.

Rob held the picture up for Gabriel to see. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, but seemed otherwise unaffected. I should've known a killer like him would mind an image of gruesome, bloody murder, Rob thought.

"I can hear you, you know," Gabriel informed him. That was when Edward and Emmett burst into the room.

"What's going on in here?" Edward asked. Gabriel examined his eyes and noticed for the first time that they were amber. Darker than the picture, but definitely close to the same.

"We're all fine," Gabriel began, then continued darkly, "but _you_ have a lot of explaining to do."


	4. Chapter 4

**Wow! You guys are soo great! We love you all to pieces! We hope you'll keep reading after this one too! Please don't forget to review and make your thoughts known to us! We really appreciate it! Anywho, enjoy chapter four of _The Darkness Of An Eclipse_!**

**This chapter was courtesy of Haydon Darescog**

Edward was confused. Deeply so. It had seemed strange at first, when he, Emmett and Carlisle had burst into the house to find 6 wet teenagers lounging in different places about the room, drying themselves with Bella's towels. He knew at once that they were no threat. Humans. But it was bizarre. Even though he could see they were different people, their thoughts seemed to blend together, making it impossible for Edward to distinguish the separate "voices" he was used to. The voices he heard normally had a distinct tone; some were bright, colourful, optimistic, while others were dark, brooding, black-and-white. These...he couldn't quite pinpoint what each person was thinking, just a collective jumble of all the thoughts and emotions the group was experiencing. It was like they were a colour-wheel, spinning and settling on one emotion, and then twisting to something completely different the next second.

It was dizzying. Trying to decipher the mass of hues was like trying to hold smoke in his bare hands. He could hold it for a moment, but then it would find its way through the cracks and breaks and disappear. In his mind, these cracks were distractions. Things that were constantly floating in the background, occasionally surfacing and breaking his concentration. Things like Bella. And Victoria. And the bloodthirsty newborn horde that they would inevitably have to deal with. Edward did his best to push all the thoughts (except for Bella) out of his head, and tried to find something that would explain this phenomena, but to no avail.

After Charlie arrived from finishing his shift, he explained the situation fully and he and Carlisle talked for a few minutes before he headed back to the house to get Bella and the rest.

Edward had to admit, Bella's reaction verged on hilarious. She just stared at the ragtag bunch of kids who had taken control of her living room, and only managed a weak handshake when the redhead of the group, Kaitlyn, tried to introduce them.

After the awkward start, Bella came and sat by Edward's side, leaning her head against his shoulder. She was silent for several minutes and then whispered quietly into his ear.

"Who are these freaks?" He looked down at her, a surprised little laugh escaping his lips.

"Oh come on, you were thinking it too," she said, mock-scornfully.

"I _was_ wondering who they were but not so much about the freak part," he chuckled.

"Sorry. I'm just really tired and I was hoping for a quiet night. Damn Charlie for being so charitable." Edward smiled, placing a quick kiss on the top of her head.

"They seem nice. Albeit a bit strange. Give them a chance, love." _No need to worry her about the thoughts issue. Not yet, _he thought.

He realized a second later that Emmett was in the middle of telling his bear attack story, and he was so into it for a moment Edward worried that he might end it with, "and _that_, children, is how I became a vampire." He grinned at Emmett, who had just had the same idea, and was currently snickering internally while imagining the reactions of each of the newcomers. Edward narrowed his eyes, and his brother thought loudly _Don't worry, Ed. I'm not that stupid._

And then suddenly, he could hear another voice amongst the ruckus in his head. _There's a part to this story that we're not getting. _Edward turned his head slightly, trying to hold onto the thought long enough to track down who it was from. It was a dark, heavy voice, coloured slightly reddish with suspicion. After a second, he pin-pointed the sender as the dark haired boy sitting on the couch with Kaitlyn on his lap. Gabriel, she had called him.

_I think Gabe's right._ _Think there are a _lot_ of things being kept from us. _There it was again! But this time it was a different person, he could tell. Brighter, but equally sceptical. Kaitlyn. Then he realized what it was she had thought. People don't usually think sarcastically, he had learned, but this was definitely directed at him. She knew he was listening. _Clever girl, picking up on that, _he thought. He would keep an eye on her.

He didn't hear anything else from them until after they started to head upstairs. There was a small burst of thought as Kaitlyn ascended the stairs with Gabriel, but it was gone before he could catch it.

He sat comfortably with Bella for several more minutes, listening to the others talking quietly amongst themselves. She was nodding off on his shoulder, and he was about to take her up to her room when they heard a scream from above. Bella's head shot up from his shoulder, and the other were all already on their feet. Several shouts followed the scream, and Charlie began to mount the stairs, before Edward stopped him.

"I'll go look," he said. Emmett got up too, moving past a startled Charlie to follow his brother. The sounds were coming from the spare room next to Bella's, and when they entered they found Kaitlyn sitting on the bed with her hands over her mouth. Gabriel was next to her, and the southern boy, Rob, was standing near the corner holding a piece of paper.

"What is going on in here?" Edward asked looking from one teenager to another.

"We're all fine," Gabriel began, then continued darkly, "but _you_ have a lot of explaining to do."

"Excuse me?" Edward asked. The unfocused pool of thoughts from before was now sharpening, making it slightly easier for him to decipher the group's thoughts. One emotion was coursing through the web of consciousnesses: Fear. They were all afraid on some level. Those in the room because of whatever was on the piece of paper, and the other three because of the screams. Carlisle was keeping them all downstairs, telling them we could handle it. Edward was drawn away from his thoughts by one word: Vampires. Gabriel had said the word that none of them ever wanted to hear from a human.

"So you guys are vampires." _He sure got to the point. _Edward though ruefully.

"Umm...No, we're not. Vampires don't exist kid. Where the hell did you get that idea?" Emmett laughed, trying to ignore the near-tears girl on the bed who was looking at them as if they had just grown extra arms. Rob held up the paper, which Edward could now see was a drawing.

"Kait drew this. She's never wrong." The picture was a pastel sketch, with quick lines and shocking colours. It was Jasper, bent over the body of a large mountain lion, with blood spewing from the incision at the animal's neck. All around them was green-a forest. The look in Jasper's eyes in the picture was one of bloodlust, and the rage that came with being interrupted mid-meal. He knew that look had been smeared on all of his family's faces—his own included—at least once.

"What do you mean 'never wrong'?" Emmett continued questioning. The three looked at each other briefly and then Edward heard Rob's thoughts (even they had an accent) clearly through his mental haze: _Should we tell them? _The others downstairs had apparently been listening, even though they were on the floor below, and they began to respond. _If you think it's necessary, _the native girl—Anna—thought. _Ditto, _Lewis—the Asian—agreed. Gabriel and Kaitlyn nodded, so Rob continued.

"...We're all psychic."

There was a pause, and then Emmett said "Seriously? That's the best you could co—" but Edward interrupted him.

"They're not lying." It was true. Even though he couldn't concentrate on one person, they were all thinking along the same lines. They were remembering experiments, fear, and pain. Mostly pain. Both physical and emotional. Edward had found throughout his vampire life that, while it was difficult to lie with thoughts, it was basically impossible to lie with memories. They were permanent. Even people suffering from amnesia still had their original memories, it was just hard to access them.

He realized at that moment why Kaitlyn had been so terrified of her drawing. It was going to come true. The haze was getting thicker again, but he was still getting small pieces of memories from her. A strange goat with red eyes. A little girl behind a spider web, and then the crushing understanding that it wasn't a spider web, it was a broken car windshield. A strange drawing of her own face with a third eye drawn directly in the center of her forehead.

"Maybe we should come downstairs and talk."


	5. Chapter 5

**Great to see you again. Please review!**

**This chapter was courtesy of Asha Childly.**

Kaitlyn was shaking. She was determined to never draw a prediction again. Surely life would be much easier that way. Gabriel helped Kaitlyn to her feet and she clung tightly to his arm, more for physical support than psychological. They followed Edward and Emmett down the stairs, where Edward said something to Charlie, who reluctantly agreed. Bella, obviously having heard, got up and clung to Edward's side. The nine of them left the Swan residence, climbing into separate cars. Emmett took Kaitlyn, Anna, and Gabriel with him, Edward took Rob, Lydia, Lewis, and Bella with him.

They drove through the small town of forks in the pouring rain, which probably wasn't likely to stop during their stay. Eventually, Emmett swerved into a side road, covered solely by dirt. It was only then that Kaitlyn realized just how fast they were going. They were pushing a good 100 mph. Subconsciously, she gripped whatever was closest to her. That happened to be Gabe's arm. She didn't notice until he nudged her, urged her to look at her hand, and said, "Ow."

They drove down that road for several minutes. When they finally stopped, they saw a beautiful, huge house. It must belong to the Cullens. When the car was parked, she and the others got out, some more relieved to be on unmoving ground than others. They were then led into the house and to a large sitting room where they were told to please wait patiently until the rest of the Cullen family arrived.

"Edward?" Carlisle said as he entered the room. "What is going on? Why have you brought them here?" His tone was merely curious, though behind that it was obvious that he was suspicious. Edward approached him and spoke, too quiet and quickly for any of them to understand. Without having anything said to her, a girl who looked extremely similar to a pixie bounced over to where they were sitting. She stood in front of Lydia and smiled.

"You wanna come see my magazine collection? You'll love it," she said, gabbing Lydia's hands and dragging her upstairs. Once they were out of earshot, they rest of the Cullens joined the kids on the couches.

"Now that she's out of the way, I suppose we have things to discuss," Carlisle said. He was smiling, but he looked pained.

"Damn right we do," Gabriel said.

"Edward tells me that you kids have learned some…_important_ information about us," Carlisle continued. "Please, tell us everything that you know."

The kids looked amongst each other.

_Who's gonna tell them? _Lewis thought.

_I think, since Kaitlyn drew the picture, she should explain what _she_ drew,_ Rob decided. Kaitlyn decided that he was still mad that she'd chosen Gabriel over him.

_Fine,_ she thought angrily. She took a deep breath and began to explain what they knew.

"Please hold your questions to the end," she began. "Based on a picture I drew"—she eyed Carlisle, who had opened his mouth to speak. She waited until he closed it to continue—"we learned that you and your family are some form of vampire, or other form of blood-sucking creature. We also know that you don't feed on humans, either all the time or part of the time. That's about it." Kaitlyn sighed. "I will now answer any of your questions the best that I can."

Carlisle went first. "What do you mean, 'based on a picture you drew'?"

"We're…psychics. I draw predictions. Lewis has PK. Rob can heal things with psychic energy. Anna…talks to animals. And Gabriel…" Gabe tightened his grip on Kait's arm.

_Don't tell them _anything_ about me,_ Gabriel warned. Kaitlyn gave a small nod.

"Gabriel is just special," she said with a sideways grin.

Edward was the next with questions. "I can't seem to hear one individual voice while listening to your thoughts." Kaitlyn narrowed her eyes. So he _had_ been listening to them. "Why is that?"

"That's probably because we're trapped in this mind web," Lewis said. "You probably hear us all at the same time, right? Jeez. That must be a pain."

"Literally," Edward said.

"Then it appears that you five aren't entirely 'human' at all," Carlisle said. "That's very good."

"Why?" the five of them asked.

"Well, it means that the Volturi won't want to destroy you the way the wish to destroy Bella," he explained. They group's eyes widened.

"You mean that, say we were human, this _Volturi_ would try to kill us, just because we knew you were vampires?" Kaitlyn asked. Carlisle nodded.

"The Volturi are the enforcers of the vampire laws, so to speak," he said. "There aren't many laws in the first place, but one of them is that no human can ever discover the existence of vampires. If this law is broken, the human involved must be…_disposed_ of."

"That's why you sent Lydia away," Kaitlyn mused.

"Exactly," Carlisle said. Kaitlyn looked around the room.

"Then why does Bella get to stay?" she asked. Carlisle sighed.

Edward answered coldly. "She already knows, and the Volturi already want to see her…"

"_Killed,_" Rob supplied. Edward nodded stiffly.

"Right," he said through his teeth.

"So, what if we're…too human?" Kaitlyn asked. "How can you know that we're not?"

"I don't," Carlisle confessed. Gabriel's hands clenched into fists. His eyes were squeezed shut. Kaitlyn grabbed at his arm, but her efforts were in vain. Gabriel stood up, furious.

"So you're willing to just _risk_ our _lives_!" he demanded, shouting loudly. "Do you even _care_ if your 'Volturi' decide that we shouldn't know! What if they killed all five of us?"

"Of course we care," a slight woman with caramel-coloured hair said. Kaitlyn and Rob pulled Gabriel back onto the couch. "We wouldn't want to wish such horror as the Volturi on _anyone_."

"Unfortunately, we need you," Edward said. He looked solemn.

"You see, we seem to be encountered a small…issue…which prevents us from living our life in peace as we usually do," Carlisle said in almost a whisper.

"Right," Edward said. "A vampire named Victoria is set on…getting rid of Bella. She wants to avenge her mate, James, who we _destroyed_."

"Now, we think she has put together a newborn vampire army"—he saw the confused looks of the kids—"newborns being just created vampires, and believe that she is going to set this army on us. We've been hoping to assemble a small army of our own, as it were."

"And you want us in your army," Rob finished.

"You are certainly not obliged to join us," the small woman said again. "We would fully understand if you didn't want to risk your lives for a family of strangers."

_Damn her subtle guilt tripping, _Kaitlyn thought.

_What are you guys thinking we should do?_ Rob asked. Everyone seemed to give a mental sigh.

_It doesn't seem like we get much of a real choice, _Lewis thought.

"Of course, we don't want you to feel pressured or anything," Edward said, an ironic, crooked smile spread across his face. Kaitlyn glared at him.

_Damn mindreading bastard,_ Gabriel and Kaitlyn thought at the same time. If you could gag in your mind, that's what Rob did at that moment.

_Jeez, why you gotta keep doing that to poor Rob?_ Lewis thought. _Anyway, I'm in, I guess._

_Me, too,_ Rob agreed.

_If he's in, I'm in,_ Anna chimed in. Gabriel smirked.

_What are you complaining for when you've got dedication like that?_ Gabe thought snidely.

_I'm definitely in,_ Kait thought.

"Alright," Gabe said finally. "You can count us in."


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey! We're really getting somewhere now! All the way to chapter six! Please review. Only good reviews so far! I hope that's a good sign ;)**

**This chapter was courtesy of Haydon Darescog.**

In his mind, Carlisle sighed. Partly with relief, but partly because they had just added five more innocent souls to their cause. If it came down to a fight, he doubted that these children would be able to survive. But, he supposed that at this point, he shouldn't underestimate them.

The redheaded girl―Kaitlyn―she was powerful. Not in terms of fighting (that he could see), but to be able to figure out their secret in less than an hour...That was quite a feat. She could give Alice a run for her money. The girl gave off an aura of danger, too. Her looks, for one, but there was something else. Something lurking under her skin that screamed of hidden talents. He would have to watch her.

The others were interesting, too. She had mentioned their abilities, but had not explained them at all. I draw predictions. Lewis has PK. Rob can heal things with psychic energy. Anna talks to animals. She spoke of these powers as if they were the most normal of things.

PK? Carlisle honestly had no idea what that meant. In all his hundreds of years he had never had much contact with anything paranormal-except for other vampires and the werewolves. He would have to Google it later.

The other two were easier to interpret. Healing, Eh? That could be invaluable in the coming battle. He wondered idly to himself if it would work on someone who was already dead, and if the whole "psychic energy" thing she spoke about was even feasible. It couldn't be...magic doesn't exist. But then, neither should we and yet here we stand. If what she was implying was true, then it would be a major breakthrough in medicine. Bigger than insulin. Bigger than organ transplants. It could revolutionize medical science.

The Anna girl was promising, too. Talking to animals...Many people had devoted their whole lives to trying to do the same, and this girl was born with it. What a gift. He couldn't think at the moment how it could be used in a fight, but he would not count her out. Even the slightest advantage was welcome if they were to overcome the oncoming horde.

And finally the dark looking boy. Gabriel. And Gabriel…Kaitlyn had paused during his explanation, as if she wasn't quite sure what she should say. Gabriel is just special. That was ominous. If they were unwilling to say what he could do, odds were it was something powerful...Or something they considered to be "evil". He felt a sudden surge of pity for the boy. Carlisle knew what that felt like. Being afraid of yourself, afraid of telling people what you could do...What you were. But enough of that. There were things to attend to.

"Well then. It would seem, since you're all joining our little quest, that we should at least show you some proper hospitality. If you wish to stay with Bella's family that's fine, but you are welcome to stay here, as well. We have plenty of space."

He watched for a moment as the group of teens just glanced around at each other. At the same time, he watched Edward, whose eyes had taken on that glassy look they always did when he was listening hard. It was fascinating, knowing that they were communicating silently, mutually sharing their thoughts mere feet away. In less than twenty seconds, it was over.

"We'd like to stay here, if that's alright." said Anna in a calm, clear voice.

"Of course. I'm sure you all must be starving, too. Esme?" Carlisle smiled at his wife. She beamed back, and he could tell how excited she was to finally use the kitchen again.

"Okay! This way, guys." Emmett called from the stairs. All of the newcomers jumped, because a second before he had been standing, leaning against the doorframe behind them. Carlisle did his best not to roll his eyes. Leave it to Emmett. Rose followed him up, and Edward, Bella, and Jasper descended to the basement to look for spare blankets.

"We'll call you for dinner!" Esme chimed in as the group trudged up the stairs.

As soon as the last shoe had disappeared onto the second floor, she spun to face Carlisle.

"Well that was weird." He chuckled.

"Psychic kids..." She trailed off, and he had to hide his smile as she skip/walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. After a few moments of surveying the contents -which was nothing more than some soda for when Bella came over- she stood up straight with her hands on her hips.

"We need to go shopping. Or, me and Alice do." she said, smiling. He loved how happy this was making her. He knew she had thought the same things he had about these children surviving a fight, but she wasn't one to dwell on things. Since none of their kids really acted like teenagers, she was excited to be able to act like a real mother.

"Alice, darling! Want to come shopping?" she trilled up the stairs, careful to use normal, human volume. Alice was on the landing and running down the stairs in ten seconds flat. Although she looked slightly put out when she realized it was for food, she still agreed to go along. They quickly surfed online and found several delicious looking dishes, printed off the ingredients, and set off.

As they left, he heard Alice mention something about "Maybe getting a little eye shadow for those gorgeous eyes of hers." Carlisle mentally groaned. I hope those girls like high fashion.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey! Chapter Seven! Woooooh!**

**This chapter was courtesy of Asha Childly. Special thanks to Haydon for description of girls' room ;)**

Emmett all but dragged the five psychics up the stairs behind him. The blonde girl, Rosalie, followed closely behind them. Kaitlyn had already decided who could be trusted―like, _really _trusted―and who could not.

First was Alice. Odd as she was, she was a good person. Kaitlyn definitely trusted her with the secrets they were hiding.

Esme was sweet and kind and gentle. She seemed like she really cared about her and the other five of them. She was trustable.

Carlisle. He seemed like all he wanted to do was help. He didn't want anybody to get hurt helping them, and if they did, then it would be because they wanted to. He wanted them to have decided to help, understanding what the consequences were.

Emmett was a good guy. He had a good sense of humor, and he seemed like if anything bad were to happen to any of them, he would make sure that whoever hurt them would get it back twice as bad.

She trusted Alice, Esme, Emmett, and Carlisle with her life.

But then there were the others.

There was Rosalie. She seemed like she didn't really care that she was being helped by total strangers. It seemed like if all of them dropped dead, she would shrug it off and turn the other way. She couldn't be trusted. Not yet.

Bella. Bella was just weird. She seemed like she really wished that all six of them (from the looks she gave other people, maybe more than just them) would just disappear and be out of her life.

Thinking about Bella's resentfulness infuriated Kaitlyn. _She_ was the one that the six of them were trying to help. These psycho vampires weren't after the Cullens. They weren't after Charlie. They weren't after the psychics. They were after _Bella_. And now this little pain in the neck girl didn't even _want them alive_? Well then, she can kiss my―

Kaitlyn's thoughts were cut off when Gabriel squeezed her hand.

_What's wrong?_ he thought to her. Kait tightened her grip on his hand.

_Nothing,_ she answered. Gabe didn't believe her. But he figured that he wasn't going to win this one, so he just nodded at her and helped her onto the last step. It didn't matter, though. He'd heard everything she'd been thinking.

Anna and Kait were finally ushered into a room near the end of the hall on the third floor by Rosalie. Kait realized now that the boys had disappeared. She glanced around the hall, only to find emptyness. Oh well, she thought. They're probably just in their new room.

As Kait and Anna stepped though the doorway, they realized that the whole house was like the part they'd seen on the first floor: Beautiful. And the whole back of the house was glass. Even here, in the bedroom on the third floor, there was one whole wall made entirly of glass.

_Wow. Some privacy, _Kait thought to Anna. Anna hadn't heard, though. She was far too busy taking in the rest of the room. Kait did the same.

The room had a high ceiling and three walls painted sky blue. On the wall across from the girls was a coat of arms stenciled into the wall in silver. In it, an open hand floated above a wolf-like animal, which appeared to snarl at the hand, showing a full mouth of white deadly teeth. From the looks of it, the raging creature was on fire.

"Gee," Kaitlyn said aloud. "Fun."

Anna, beside her, giggled softly. Rosalie simply glowered.

"You two can stay here," she said. Her voice was like silver, but her eyes were like daggers. Kaitlyn noted how she'd said they _could_ stay here. Kaitlyn finished the sentence with 'Or you could go back to wherever you came from and never your face within a fifty-mile radius of here again.' Bitter snob, Kaitlyn added in her head.

"Thank you," Anna said sourly. Kaitlyn could see that Anna wasn't enjoying Rosalie's attitude any more than she was herself.

The two girls moved from the doorway to a bed. It was beautiful as well. It was huge, and Anna and Kait could easily share it between the two of them. It had a white sheet with lace along the top, covered by a pale yellow duvée and pillowcases to match. On each corner was a post, and hanging from the posts was a large, silky drape.

All in all, the room was gorgeous.

Rosalie gave them one final bow of the head and left the room. Anna turned to Kait, glowering slightly.

"The house is nice," she said, "but I could do without the service."

Kaitlyn laughed. I couldn't agree more, she thought. Not to Anna, but simply to herself. She fell back on the bed, which caught her like a cloud, or a truckfull of down feathers. She idly wondered how the boys were making out in their own room.

Gabriel, Rob, and Lewis stood in their room, assessing each square inch. The walls were white and too bright. The sheets on the beds were the same white, and so was most of the rest of the room. There was one queen-sized bed and one twin. When the boys saw this, they turned to each other.

"They want two of us to sleep together," Lewis noted. Gabriel shook his head.

"No way am I sleeping with either of you," he said immediately. "I'd sleep outside first."

"Be my guest," Rob said in return, his eyes turning to slits. Gabriel glared back.

"Maybe I will," he said. Then he straightened up, a dark smile spreading across his face. He continued as if he were speaking to himself. "Or maybe I'll just go down the hall and squeeze in with Kaitlyn instead."

Rob tensed. He looked ready to pounce at Gabriel. Lewis watched the exchange in horror. Of course he didn't want any fighting, but he certainly didn't want to get in the middle of _this_, either.

"I swear to god, Gabriel," Rob was threatening. "If you hurt her in any way, I'll turn it around on you at five times the force."

"Like you could take on me," Gabriel snorted. He was honest-to-god terrifying. "All you can do is fix up the mess I'd make of you, country boy."

Rob was fuming. Lewis watched, just waiting for him to finally explode. When he finally did, he said, "Do you want to test that?"

"Sure," Gabriel said arrogantly. "When and where?"

"Outside. Right now."

"Perfect."

The two stormed out of the room.

Jeez, Lewis thought. Those two are gonna kill each other! He took off down the hallway to alert the girls. If they couldn't stop them, no one could.

Lewis really hoped they could stop , Emmett led Kait and Anna to a room at the far end of a hallway, down the hall from the boys. It was a beautiful house, and this room was no exception. A high ceiling, with walls painted a light sky blue. One wall was stenciled with a large, silver coat of arms. In it, an open hand floated above a snarling, wolf-like animal. The way it was portrayed made it look like it was on fire. Below the beast, three cloversUpstairs, Emmett led Kait and Anna to a room at the far end of a hallway, down the hall from the boys. It was a beautiful house, and this room was no exception. A high ceiling, with walls painted a light sky blue. One wall was stenciled with a large, silver coat of arms. In it, an open hand floated above a snarling, wolf-like animal. The way it was portrayed made it look like it was on fire. Below the beast, three clovers


	8. Chapter 8

**Woah! This is getting interesting, huh? Hooray! I really love how great you viewers are! I hope you keep reading.**

**This chapter was courtesy of Haydon Darescog.**

This should be fun Anna thought as she ran down the stairs behind Kait. About 30 seconds before, Lewis had come running into the room looking like he was being chased by a madman. When he had explained what was going on however, she had realized that the truth was much, much worse. Gabe and Rob fighting?

For a moment she had been genuinely frightened that they might kill each other, but then she felt Kait's rage level slowly rising past the normal "The-world-is-out-to-get-me" to a much more unstable level Anna had christened "Boys." She almost smiled. Kaitlyn Fairchild was not something either of those boys wanted to anger. She wouldn't have a problem calming them down. She also thought briefly that Kait would not be happy with her little names, so she quickly erected a thin barrier in her mind as they descended to the first floor.

As they hurriedly exited the house they passed a mildly surprised looking Bella, who was leading the small party of vampires up the basement stairs. Anna thought mildly if they should warn them about the incoming tidal wave of hormonal/psychic energy that was about to hit. Nah. They would figure it out.

On the front lawn, the fight had already begun. It became apparent as they approached that her initial reaction of fear for their lives was correct. Rob was down on his knees, struggling to stand up as Gabriel tore into his mind. Anna could feel the pain of it through the web, and found she was panting and sweating from the effort to stay conscious by the time she got there.

"Hey! HEY!" Kait yelled. Anna winced as the loud noise cut through her already brittle mind. She closed her eyes for a moment. What was going on? She had never been this affected before, not unless you counted when Gabe was hooked up to that horrible crystal. But even then it had taken almost a half hour for the pain to reach this point. She didn't understand.

Kait seemed all right, as did Gabe (He felt it too, even though he was the instigator). Even Rob, who was getting the full force of the attack, seemed fairing better than her. As she watched, he slowly got to his feet and held one hand out in the telepath's direction. Rob squared his jaw and closed his eyes, as if he was concentrating hard—like he did when he healed.

Slowly, small cuts began to emerge all over Gabriel's body. They grew, blossoming into bright lines all over his body and clothes. His eyes widened, and she felt him increase the intensity of his own attack. Kait was still yelling, trying to stop them without getting her herself. She turned towards Anna, as if she was going to ask for help and suddenly seemed to notice her condition.

Kait ran over to her, where she sat on the ground, hand pressed against her head. I don't remember sitting down Anna realized with a jolt. That was a bad sign. She hadn't noticed that the pain had become physical, either. Along her arms and hands, she could see tiny slices appearing, as if she was being bombarded by pieces of paper, each leaving a long, shallow gash in her skin.

She saw Kait's eyes go wide, and she could tell she was screaming even louder, but she was long past being able to hear. Anna felt something lighting fast brush past her and then saw Gabriel being bowled over by Edward, and Rob by Emmett. The next second, someone was holding her shoulders firmly, and a face appeared in front of her.

"Anna. Anna, can you hear me?" Someone was speaking to her in a slow, worried voice. Carlisle. She just stared for a moment. They really were beautiful, these vampires. Then the cold fingers on her shoulders tightened, and she was pulled back to reality. It took her a second to translate the sounds coming from his mouth into something understandable. Her brain seemed to have blacked out in the sudden absence of the crippling pain, and he had to repeat himself at least three times.

She nodded numbly when the message finally got through. As her senses re-adjusted, she became aware that people were staring at her. Kaitlyn was directly behind Carlisle, looking more scared that she'd ever seen her. Emmett had Rob in a headlock, and they were both looking at her. Emmett looked sort of like a mix between curiosity and concern, while Rob looked absolutely horrified.

Edward was pinning Gabriel to the ground while looking like he was in pain himself. Even Gabe—Mr. Stoic—looked remorseful, like he actually regretted something for once in his stupid, murderous life. She saw his eyes widen slightly, and realized that he must have heard her. Good. I'm tired of being forgiving. She thought angrily.

It felt good, being openly angry. She glared at him, and then shifted her gaze back to Rob. How could he? How could he not notice that he was hurting her like that? She forced all of the memories of the pain from the last minutes into one thought and—along with a large selection of curse words—forced it towards the two boys. They both gasped, and identical shivers ran down their bodies.

The two holding them seemed confused, but then Edward looked up, directly into her eyes. She glared at him too, as if daring him to tell her to stop. He looked away quickly, and his eyes told her that he did not want to get into the middle of a psychic mind-battle.

"Anna." Carlisle snapped his fingers in front of her eyes. She blinked, suddenly brought back to herself by his stern voice. The whole exchange with Rob and Gabe and Edward had taken less than ten seconds, but Carlisle seemed to have grasped what was going on. She glared at him too for a moment before realizing that he had done nothing to hurt her thus far. She whispered an apology quietly, looking at the ground. He smiled.

"Don't worry about it," he said, quietly enough that only she heard.

"Come. I'll patch up those cuts." He offered her his hand and she took it, letting him pull her gently to her feet. She teetered slightly, but regained her balance quickly. He turned towards Rosalie, who she hadn't noticed arrived.

"Could you patch up Gabriel for me?" She nodded mutely.

"And then, we will talk about this and you will give us the whole story." He said, and Anna could hear the slightest threat in his voice. If they weren't truthful, then they were no longer welcome.


	9. Chapter 9

**I can't believe how far along we've gotten! Some major plot twists coming up! If you love them/hate them, please let me know via reviews! I'll pass the word on to Haydon. We just love to have your opinions. Remember, this story wouldn't be possible without the love of our viewers!**

**This chapter was courtesy of Asha Childly.**

Gabriel followed the blonde vampire, Rosalie, through the house. He tried to look as bad boyish as ever, despite the aching and stinging throughout his body. That idiot Kessler had maimed him with that stupid…how _had_ he done it, anyway? Gabe had just been standing there, destroying Kessler's mind with his psychic vampireness, and then, next thing he knew, he was full of holes! And now some blonde chick was leading him along, making him look like a weak, useless glob of nothing?

I don't think so.

He was finally led through a door to a room with a large bed on it.

Rosalie gestured for him to sit down on it. She pulled out a large roll of gauze, returned to Gabriel, and began patching him up. He noted that she'd never looked at his face once since she'd whisked him away from the battlefront.

She wrapped the gauze all over his arms, where the cuts were worst. Worst meaning everywhere. She seemed to not care about helping him, really. She was just a hot blonde vampire who seemed to be full of herself and that was all there was to her.

She also had a very strong grip of his arm.

"You know," he said at last. She glanced up at him for the briefest of moments, then returned her gaze to her work. He continued without waiting for an answer he wasn't going to get anyway. "Those kinda hurt when you squeeze 'em like that." She seemed to chew her lip a bit.

"Sorry," she said finally. She didn't sound like she was sorry.

"So," he said, leaning back. This time, she didn't look up. "What makes you good enough to fix me up?"

She answered coldly, "You make it extremely difficult to not kill you. Did you know that?"

"You're touch is painful, you're a heartless witch…"

"I could just lean in and suck all the blood from your stupid little body…"

"You're cold, you're cruel, you've only looked at my face once…"

"It would be so easy, too. And very refreshing…"

"I mean the pixie girl seems much nicer than you…"

"Hell, you probably wouldn't even notice. The cuts are already there…"

"I want you in my pants."

"I thought you'd never offer."

Kaitlyn was sitting in the kitchen with Anna. There was something…_off_ about her today. She was never this…surly. The thoughts she sent to the boys after they'd settled down were horrible. The Anna she knew was never quite so cold-hearted. It was like something deep inside her finally just…snapped.

Anna was sitting on the counter. Carlisle was bandaging her arms. She wouldn't talk. It was just so strange. Kaitlyn asked her over and over what was wrong, but Anna just shook her head, her dark braid flying behind her. And when Carlisle told her he was finished, she just hopped off the counter and walked away.

"What's wrong with her?" Kaitlyn asked once Anna was out of earshot. The doctor shrugged.

"I wish I knew," he said quietly, pulling a latex glove off of his hand by the middle finger. While he did though, a tiny smiled grew on his face. He held out a small vial containing red liquid in it. "However, I think this might be able help us get an answer."

Kaitlyn covered her mouth with her hand, covering a shocked grin. She made a sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a laugh.

"How did you get that?" she gasped. Carlisle shrugged, although he was still grinning.

"I plan to run some tests on it," he said. "Although I don't know her, it appeared that she was acting rather strangely."

"Alright. I hope everything's okay with her." Kaitlyn spoke almost to herself. "I hope she doesn't have anything…really bad."

Carlisle gave her a reassuring smile and patted her on the shoulder. "I'm certain she'll be fine."

Gabriel had no idea what he was doing.

Well, he did, sort of. He was having sex with a vampire. But he didn't know _why_. Didn't he love Kaitlyn? Wasn't she the one who he _really_ wanted?

The answer was obvious. Of course he wanted her more than anything. But then why was there a vampire in his pants? God only knows.

He was veiling his thoughts, obviously. He didn't want the other four in the web to know what he was thinking. Of course, they probably didn't want to know what he was thinking, either. But despite how desperately he was trying to hide, it was difficult to focus on that. Not impossible, just difficult.

He couldn't think about Kaitlyn at the moment, though. He was living in the moment. There was a hot girl—slender, blonde, light, pale—right there, underneath him. He didn't have time to think about long-term consequences. He barely considered consequences at all. He pushed Kaitlyn to the back of his mind and focused on the now instead.

Rosalie. Rosalie was the now. She was smooth, and passionate, and beautiful, and _really good_.

But she wasn't warm, and she didn't love him.

And she wasn't Kaitlyn.

Once the mood had finally calmed down, he rolled off of her and swung his legs over the side of the bed. She sat up and ran her hands through her hair. They dressed and Rosalie gave him a wink and left the room. He just grimaced and watched her walk away. Gabriel finally lifted his veils a little bit and let some of his thoughts flow.

He heard Kaitlyn downstairs, talking to Carlisle about Anna. They were concerned about the way she was acting. Now that he thought about it, Gabe was a little confused by her new mood swings as well. She was being very…_weird._

Rob was looking for Anna, and was not being very successful. He was still thinking about Gabriel, and it seemed like there was a big storm cloud over all of his thoughts. _Brooding,_ Gabriel thought to himself.

He finally left the room to go look at the rest of the house. As he walked down the stairs, Anna passed by him. She glared at him, and he gave a malicious glare back.

Then he thought, only to her, _Just so you know, I'm not stoic._


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi again! It's so awesome to see you again! By the way, just so everyone knows, I've been in New Brunswick for the past two weeks, which is, like, 2, 000 miles away from Haydon. We've only had chat to comunicate with eachother, which kinda sucks because I can only use a laptop at my aunt's since my grandparents' computer died. I also lost, like, three chapters of _Light Wings Behind Dark Fangs,_ for anyone who reads that over at fictionpress.**

**But at this point, I'm just venting, so I don't care if you were actually listening.**

**Anyway, please enjoy chapter ten of _The Darkness of an Eclipse._**

**This chapter was courtesy of Haydon Darescog.**

That stupid jerk. God, he looked so smug. She just wanted too...To hit him. To hurt him like he had hurt her. It was such a strange revelation for Anna that she stopped dead on the stairs. Gabriel gave a short little bark of laughter, thinking that she had stopped because of his taunt. He moved past her into the sitting room, smirking all the way.

But Anna just stayed standing there, holding the dark mahogany banister tightly in one hand. She had never wanted to hurt anyone before in her life. Not when she got beat up at school, not when some local boys killed her dog, not even when Mr. Zetes had been hunting them. She had wanted to stop him, yes, but all she had really wanted him locked away for a long time.

But this...She had honestly wanted to attack Gabriel. And he was a friend―one who made stupid decisions, mind you―but still someone she counted on.

"Anna?" Kait's voice issued from the room below, calling her back down for the "meeting" Carlisle had insisted.

"Coming!" she called, trying to keep her voice its usual serene tone. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment as she descended the dark-paneled steps. Keep it together, Ann. You're a pacifist, remember? she thought to herself. When she entered the room, the whole group was spread out about the room. The three young vampire (she considered Bella one of them) couples were sitting on dining room chairs along the right wall that had been moved in for extra seating. She had to hide her shock when she noticed the vampire sitting next to Alice was the one from Kait's drawing. He had kept to the background earlier, so she hadn't really looked at him. Jasper, Edward had said.

Esme and Carlisle sat on a love seat at the far end on the room, facing its occupants as if to oversee the meeting. The psychics all sat stiffly on a beautiful red leather couch on the left wall. She slid in next to Lewis, who gave her a little smile.

_You okay?_ he thought to her as she settled in.

_Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry,_ she thought to him, and felt his relief at her reply.

"Alright. Now that we are all accounted for, I would like to hear your story. The whole story."  
Anna suddenly realized who was missing.

"_Where's Lydia?" _she sent through the web, as well as said aloud.

"She would only get in trouble if she stayed here and found out about us." Carlisle gestured to his family. Anna understood.

_She's packing now, and Joyce is picking her up tomorrow,_ Lewis thought, and Anna couldn't help feeling sorry for him. He had been looking forward to spending time with her on the trip. Then she felt Kait sigh through the web. She was the sort of unofficial leader of their little team, so they all knew she would be the one to tell their tale.

"Ok. But before I begin, once again, please hold your questions to the end." Carlisle nodded in the red-head's direction and she began. She told them everything; their start at the institute, how Gabriel created the web, them going on the run, the crystal (several raised eyebrows at that), the search for the people in the white house, and the great conclusion to their quest.

By the end, Kait looked exhausted. They all did. Remembering all those things and laying them all out at once like that made it really sink in. Everything that had happened, the people they'd lost...and in such a short time. They had met less than two weeks ago, and it seemed unreal.

After the room stayed quiet for a minute, Esme said, "I'm so sorry."

She looked so sad, so genuinely upset about their experiences that Anna felt the need to comfort her in some way.

"Thank you. But really, it wasn't all bad. We got a chance to meet each other, after all." she said, and glanced meaningfully up at Rob, who smiled.

Esme grinned at her. "Yes. You're right. Now, I guess, you'd like to hear our story?"

An hour later, Anna was lying in the huge be upstairs, her head buzzing with the stories of each  
of the vampires. They were all tragedies, in their own way, but they also all ended somewhat happily. They all found each other, and they lived out their "second lives" in peace (until Bella came along). It was a crazy thought that the people in the rooms below her would never die. If they kept living like this, they could live until the next millennia. And the one after that. Forever.

The thoughts were too big for her to wrap her head around, and kept her from relaxing into a much needed rest. Unlike Kaitlyn. She glanced over her shoulder at her sleeping friend, who had been out the minute she set her head down on the lovely down pillows.

Anna forced her thoughts to slow down. She took deep breaths and thought of easy things; The wonderful feeling of connecting mentally with an animal, the huge breakfast Esme had promised as they staggered up to bed, and Rob. Mostly him. She let herself slowly fall into the memories of him; their first kiss (that they had managed to keep secret), the way he looked at her sometimes, the way he smelled...

She was asleep in seconds.

Over the next week, Anna slid back into her old personality. She didn't know what had happened to her on that first night, but she didn't really care, as long as it didn't cause her any trouble anymore. She slowly got used to their strange new living accommodations, too. They ate Esme's amazing cooking, learned more about Victoria and newborn vampires, and started to show the Cullen's their powers. They were a great audience, and were amazed with their abilities. It was a welcome change from the scornful glances and angry stares of her hometown, and she began to grow attached to the family.

Kait was having a harder time, however. She and Gabe were having a "rough patch", as she put it. Anna hadn't seen them do anything remotely romantic since they had arrived, and Gabe had taken to disappearing for hours on what he said were "walks". He never let his walls down anymore either, which lead Anna to believe that something was going on with him. But she didn't dare bring it up with her friend, for fear that she would be right and that it would spark a fight.

She asked Kait if she wanted to talk about it, but she only told her, "It's his problem. He can work it out."

So they spent their free time getting to know the Cullens better. Emmett was a riot, and he readily welcomed any company. Alice became their particular friend, and one night, a few days after their arrival, she took Anna and Kait out shopping. It was the most Anna she had had in weeks, and Alice seemed determined to buy them both completely new wardrobes. They returned to the house with bags full of expensive clothing, new makeup, and a beautiful set of watercolor paints for Kaitlyn.  
They all tiptoed through the quiet house, and Alice wished them goodnight before slipping down a hallway towards her and Jasper's room. Anna climbed the steps silently, with Kait on her heels, and slid into their room. She walked to the huge window and looked down onto the edge of the dark forest below. It was beautiful and clear out, and the moonlight lit up the ground in a stark contrast with the dark branches of the trees.

Just the, two figures stumbled out from between the trees, and stopped on the grass. It was a man and a woman, she could tell from here, and they had their arms around each other. The man bent his head and kissed the woman, and she pushed her fingers into his hair. They turned slightly, and the moonlight suddenly hit them properly. The woman had light blond curly hair that fell past her shoulders, and pale skin. The man was also pale, but with dark, unruly hair. Hair that fell over one eye...

Anna gasped. It was Gabriel. Gabriel _and_ Rosalie. And they were making out in the forest. Oh. God.

"What're you looking at?" Kait said suddenly, and walked up behind her. "Is it bats or someth―?" She stopped dead, staring out of the window.


	11. Chapter 11

**Oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry it's been, like, a month since I updated. But hey, people go on vacation. And summer's a good time for that. But I was at my cottage and we don't have internet, but don't worry! Haydon and I have been writing, so how forgiving me and reading the chapter down there? Yeah, that's right, down there! Keep going...THERE! Thanks so much for being so understanding, folks.**

**This chapter was courtesy of Asha Childly**

Kaitlyn looked out the window at the scene below her. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. But she wasn't embarrassed. No. This was the other kind of flushing. The kind you get when you're absolutely _furious_. Anna could see it, too. Slowly, she backed away from Kaitlyn, afraid to be lashed out upon, whether it was intentional or not.

But Kaitlyn didn't try to lash out on anyone (or anything, for that matter). Instead, she turned on her heel and headed for the door to the hall. Anna hurried to the doorframe and watched Kait storm down the hall. She turned and headed down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Once she reached the first level, she walked through the living room and went through a door on the back wall.

When she reached Gabriel, he was alone. Rosalie was nowhere in sight. When Gabe finally noticed Kait was there, he gave her one of his badass smiles.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," she answered huskily. Gabriel turned away from her and began walking in the other direction. Taken off guard, Kaitlyn made a quick double take and took off after him. She ran up beside him, matching his pace.

"So," she said, slightly winded. "You wouldn't be able to tell me where Rosalie might have been, let's say, two minutes ago?" Gabriel scoffed slightly.

"Of course not," he said shortly. "I don't keep tabs on people I hardly even know."

"What about people you have sex with behind your girlfriend's back?"

Gabriel's step faltered beside her. He took only a second to recover, and he continued walking. Then, he said, still not looking at Kaitlyn, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Kait turned to him and let out a short bark of laughter, but there was no humor anywhere on her face. Gabriel's eyebrows pulled together and a scowl developed on his face. He still avoided Kaitlyn's eyes as he said, "I don't get what's so funny."

"Oh!" Kaitlyn gasped in mock surprise. She stopped walking, and Gabe turned around to look at her for the first time since he'd started walking again. "You don't _get it_?" Gabriel watched her with curiosity and concern for her sanity. "I just thought it was funny that you're even _trying_ to deny it. You know, that you've been sleeping with Rosalie. Is that what your little 'walks' were, too? I just think it's funny that I've been ._stupid_! That I never figured out that you've been lying to me ever since we got here!"

Kaitlyn was furious. No. Furious was too simple a word. The level of anger Kaitlyn felt at that moment was so high that it hadn't been awarded a name yet. It was like she was infuriated, enraged, incensed, and every other synonym of the word added together to make a whole new form of fury that no one had ever felt before. There was only one name to give it.

Pyrokinesis-inducing fury.

Kaitlyn's hair was blowing about, even though there was no wind. Her eyes seemed to sparkle, even though the moon was hidden behind the clouds. Her hands were clenched into tight fists. Behind her, an inferno began to blaze inexplicably. The only logical (however unrealistic) answer was that in her anger, she had developed a new power: Pyrokinesis. The ability to create fire using only her mind.

Gabriel watched the fire behind Kaitlyn. It followed her as she approached him. He slowly stepped away from her, raising his hands in defense. He had to do something, to say anything. It didn't matter what it was as long as it kept Kait from turning him to ash. She had the expression of a psycho killer; an evil smile was spread across her face, her eyes were burning with fury and a sadistic delight.

"Give me one good reason not to kill you right now, Gabriel," she said, her voice hoarse, with a terrifying tone to it.

Gabriel searched his brain for a good reason. He nothing was coming to him. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn's burning inferno was drawing attention. Anna, Lewis, and Rob were watching from the safety of the side of the house. Even Lydia had taken a break from packing to see what all the commotion was about. The pixie-like vampire, Alice, was standing there as well, standing in front of Edward, the first one to ever crack their system of their web. Beside them was the tall blond vampire from Kait's vision. He was watching them with a strange expression that was somewhere between horror and concentration.

"Um," Gabe said finally, "if you killed me than you'd be one valuable person short when we fight the vampire army?" Kaitlyn let out a breathy laugh almost like a scoff. Gabriel knew from that what she was going to say before she even did.

"Not good enough, Gabriel."

The flames that still burned behind her grew bigger, so that they sparkled even above Kaitlyn's head. Her hair flew in different directions, still without the aid of wind. Her hands were pulled to her hips, palms up, and small flames developed beside her there. But before those fires were born, there was a barely audible popping noise. He hadn't noticed it before, but there had been that same popping before the inferno behind her started, the only difference being that it was much louder.

Kaitlyn was gaining on Gabriel, her hands still aflame. Gabriel backed up, hitting a tree. Kaitlyn was gaining speed. She'd cornered him, like a predator stalking its prey until it couldn't get away. Gabriel reacted the way prey would. The option of flight was eliminated, leaving only fight. Gabriel could do fight. He was in danger.

His natural predator instinct, developed when he was on the run, kicked in. He wasn't fighting with Kaitlyn. He was fighting with someone who wanted him dead. It didn't matter who specifically. All that mattered was that she was stopped. Gabriel leaned back against the tree, using it to support his body. He reached out his mind, trying to draw his 'psychic vampire' powers. All the power centered itself in the center of his forehead, the exact location of his third eye.

Gabriel was about to release all the power he'd called on out to attack the monster trying to destroy him when a strange feeling, almost like a headache, made its home in Gabriel's head. He brought his hand up to his forehead, as if trying to keep his brain from pouring out of his skull. He couldn't understand what was happening. His powers had never done this to him. It had to be something else; some outside force acting to bring him down as well. The pain diminished slightly, and Gabriel felt safe to pull his hand away from his head. He kept it near, though, in case he needed to keep his brain in again.

Suddenly, strangely, he no longer felt the need to destroy, to avoid being killed. He didn't feel in danger. Instead, the feelings were replaced by calm. Calm, else, some other emotion. He reached around in his mind, looking for the feeling so he could find the word to describe it. Then, the answer flooded over him.

_Love._ Hate was replaced with _love._

Kaitlyn seemed to have changed, as well. When Gabriel looked up at her, her face . There was nothing on it. She seemed as though everything she had been feeling and thinking had . It wasn't there anymore. She looked down at Gabriel, who had slid down the tree trunk and was sitting on the ground with his knees pulled up to his chest. The fire that had been licking her back and flowing from her palms disappeared almost as quickly as it had begun.

Kait knelt down in front of Gabriel. No. Not knelt, fell. Fell to her knees. Gabriel sat up on his and held her hands in his. Kaitlyn, who had had her head hanging loosely on her neck, eyes closed, turned her gaze to their hands. Gabriel was watching her carefully. She looked up from their intertwined hands to meet Gabriel's gaze. She opened her mouth to say something, but Gabriel released one of her hands to bring his finger up to her lips.

"No," he told her. "Me first." When she didn't object, he continued, dropping his finger from her mouth. "I'm sorry. I'm an idiot."

"Yes, you are," she agreed, with Kaitlyn humor in her eyes. Gabriel laughed shortly, but his humor disappeared and was replaced by seriousness.

"I never thought about anything the whole time I was with Rose. I just wanted something I didn't have," he said.

"Like an idiot," Kaitlyn added. Gabriel nodded, a hint of a smile appearing on his lips.

"Yes, like an idiot," he agreed. "But I hate myself for it. And if I could go back and change things, I would have made it you, not Rosalie."

Kaitlyn raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "Really?" she said. Gabe nodded.

"Every time," he assured her. "You changed my life. You're the one I want." Gabe paused, seeming to take a moment to compose himself. "_You_ are my Kaitlyn."

Kaitlyn fell into Gabriel's arms, sobbing and wailing unintelligible things into his chest. He just hugged her and rubbed circles on her back.

T.B.C.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi again. Haydon's chapter. Same deal as previous chapter. Really sorry. Please enjoy!**

**This chapter was courtesy of Haydon Darescog.**

Emmett sat alone in the dark cabin. There wasn't much left of it now, after several years of being deserted. The only thing that was still completely intact was the solid metal bed frame that, even under layers of dirt and rust, was still strangely beautiful; in his eyes anyway. It held so many memories.

The cabin was so small that almost all of the available space was taken up by the king size bed, so when they first started staying there they had removed the tiny table and chairs and pushed the bed into the middle of the space. That first year they had done everything on the bed; apart from the obvious (cough), they had read, talked, planned, and just hung out. Emmett remembered fondly the couple of months when she had been insanely into Risk, and they had sat on the thick mattress and played it for hours every day.

She. Her. Rose. It had been him and her since the beginning, since he had woken up in his new life. They had promised each other forever. They had promised that a thousand years from now they would still be together. But then this kid, this boy came along and suddenly none of that mattered? Did this mean that she was breaking their agreement? Were they over?

He sighed. He was being dramatic, he knew. This was Rose, he was talking about. She was all about passion and beauty and, honestly, was more about sex than he was. Now that he thought about it, they hadn't really done anything for weeks because of the whole Victoria business. And then this good looking, desperate kid shows up... I can sort of see why she did what she did. Sort of.

He realized then that he had been sitting in the crumbling little house for several hours. She wouldn't be looking for him, it wasn't her style. She would wait until he sought her out to give her apology. Even though he loved her more than anything (anything), he would be the first to admit that she was not the apologetic type.

When he got to the house, everything was quiet. It had been weird at first, having to be quiet at night, but they had all found ways to amuse themselves through the night without waking their guests. In the kitchen, only the small light above the stove was turned on, spreading a circle of light across part of the island in the center of the room.

In the half-light he could make out the shapes of Esme, Carlisle, and Alice gathered around it. They were all holding steaming mugs of tea in some calm, flowery flavour. Esme's love of tea had carried over from her human life (she had said that she liked the warmth), and she had somehow gotten the rest of them hooked. It was the only human food item that they enjoyed, and they had taken to having a cup every night after the newcomers were in bed.

When Emmett reached the table, there was already a cup waiting for him. They all sat for a moment, not speaking, just listening to the night sounds all around the house. Alice, who was to his right, suddenly put down her mug and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I'm so sorry, Emmett." she whispered. He hugged her, and then drew back, planting a kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks." he said, sounding resigned. Esme put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed slightly. There was nothing more to be said, they all knew. It was the curse of loving a woman like Rosalie; it was painful. But it was worth it, he understood. Tomorrow they would talk it over and everything would go back to normal. He hoped.


	13. Chapter 13

After much coaxing, Kaitlyn composed herself. Gabriel stood and helped her to her feet, and they walked toward the house, noticing the fact that they had an audience for the first time. Kaitlyn laughed nervously as they passed the Cullens, and Gabriel passed her off to Anna, who was told to take her up to their room and get her to sleep. He stayed behind looking at Edward and Jasper, the only remaining Cullens in the yard.

"Okay," Gabriel said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. He looked from one of the vampires to the other, and back again, over and over.

"Is there something we can help you with?" Edward asked. Gabriel dropped his hands to his sides and looked at Edward, hoping to frighten him with his stare, as he had so many times before. Edward didn't seem shaken in the least.

"Yes, there is," Gabriel said. "It would save a lot of time if we were all honest with each other, I just wonder if you'll agree to that?"

Edward looked to Jasper, who nodded, and said to Gabriel, "Yes, Jasper and I agree to answer any questions-so long as you do the same."

"Would I have asked if I hadn't already decided to do the same?" Gabriel asked, almost demanded. He was exasperated, frustrated, and all together tired of people. He composed himself and looked back and forth between Jasper and Edward again.

"I know one of you had something to do with what happened back there," he accused gently. He needed them on his side if he wanted answers. "People don't just forgive other people like that right out of the blue. Kait probably would have been mad at me for months." He paused, seeming to consider something, then added, "That is, if she hadn't burned me at the stake." He laughed as he considered burning and stakes, noticing the irony. He was familiar with a wide variety of vampire books.

Edward sighed. "Yes, I admit we did interfere with your argument with Kaitlyn," he said. He turned to Jasper. "You see, Jasper was the one who made you relaxed. He can control the emotions of others."

"I must confess," Jasper said, with a ghost of a grin on his face. Gabriel narrowed his eyes at him, waiting for his confession. "I not only calmed to two of you, but around with your emotions for each other."

"Oh!" Gabriel said with mock revelation. "Well, isn't that just super? Kaitlyn doesn't even actually love me?"

"She does," Jasper assured Gabriel. "I just awakened the resting passion and brought it up."

"You'd think you'd be more grateful," Edward said. "You know, seeing as we saved you life and all."

"I would be, if the two of you would just stay the hell out of my head!" Gabriel shouted angrily. He turned on his heel and stormed back up to the house, up the stairs to the third level and into Kaitlyn's room. Rob would be in a state when he found out, but that didn't matter. In the room, resting against the wall, was a couch that was probably overlooked when the girls looked around. It blended so perfectly with its surroundings. Gabriel strode across the room silently and lay down on the couch. He fell asleep almost instantly.

Gabriel woke up to see Kaitlyn sitting on her bed, brushing out her long, flame-like hair. She turned around to look at Gabriel and smiled.

"Oh," she said. To Gabriel, her voice sounded like bells. "You're awake. I was beginning to wonder."

Gabriel groaned as he sat up. Note to self, he thought. Don't sleep on a leather couch ever again. Kaitlyn went back to brushing out her hair. She stared out the window at nothing obvious, but continued to smile. She spoke to Gabriel, still looking out the window.

"Sleep well?" she asked innocently, but there was mock humor on her face.

"Not particularly," Gabriel said, audibly cracking his back. Kaitlyn winced as the pops reached her ears.

"Why'd you sleep on the couch? In _my_ room?" she asked, turning to look at him. Gabriel looked away from her, out the window.

"We had a conflict with sleeping arrangements in our room," he answered. Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow.

"So you came and watched Anna and me sleep instead?" she asked with a smile. Looking at Kaitlyn's smile made the corners of Gabriel's mouth threaten to curl up themselves.

"Yes, that's exactly what I did," he said simply. Kaitlyn laughed.

"Good. At least you're honest," she said. She stood up and helped Gabriel to his feet as well. "C'mon. Esme probably has some extravagant breakfast prepared for us again. You'd think she was sweetening us up so she could eat us all up!"

Gabriel didn't laugh at the 'joke'. Instead, he froze. Kaitlyn scowled at him.

"C'mon, Gabe," she urged. "It was only a joke. What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing," he said. "You're right. We shouldn't keep everyone waiting for us. Let's go." With that, he guided the girl out of the room and down the stairs. When they reached the bottom, Gabriel could see Anna, Lewis, Lydia, and Rob sitting at a dining table, as well as an unexpected face. The face of Bella Swan.

_Doesn't she ever go home?_ Gabriel asked Kaitlyn. She laughed, despite herself.

_Poor Charlie,_ she added. _He never even sees his daughter._

As expected, Rob glared at Gabriel as soon as he was in sight. Gabriel gave him a mocking smile. This infuriated Rob even more. When he and Kaitlyn joined the other five at the table, Rob turned on him.

"I didn't see you in our room this morning," Rob said. There was suspicion in his voice. "Where were you, Gabriel?"

"I slept in Kait and Anna's room," he answered simply. Rob was taken aback by Gabriel's honesty. "There's a pretty nice couch in there," he added, almost to himself. It made Rob look a little calmer.

At that moment, Carlisle, Edward, Rosalie, Alice, and Esme walked into the room. They looked over the six teens, then only at Lydia.

"Um, good morning, Lydia," Carlisle said, almost gravely. "I hate to ask, but-"

"Oh, sure!" Lydia burst. She was obviously angry at almost being asked to go. "I'll just leave. I wouldn't want to interrupt another one of your little 'meetings' that I'm never allowed to be in on." She stood, pushing her chair away from the table. "You know, I'm so sick of this place!" She turned on her heel and left the room, stomping her feet loudly as she left.

"Lydia!" Esme called after her, then put her head in her hands. "Oh, dear. The poor girl."

"Someone should really go talk to her," Carlisle said.

"I'll go," Lewis volunteered automatically. He jumped up from the table and took off in the direction Lydia had gone. The Cullens turned back to the remaining psychics at the table.

"Anyway, we-my family and I-had been hoping to train you on fighting newborn vampires. The wolves from La Push are joining us. We hoped you'd join us too," he said, though it was obvious that the psychics didn't really have a choice, he just wanted them to feel like they did. "It would be very useful for you to learn. Jasper here is somewhat of an expert in the field." He gestured to his blond-haired son, who nodded.

The four were about to agree when a relatively loud thought from upstairs rang through the web. It was Lewis, and he was frantic.

_She's gone!_ he said. Kaitlyn's eyebrows pulled together.

_What do you mean "she's gone", Lewis?_ she asked.

_I mean she's not here!_ he clarified.

_Did you look everywhere? _Robasked.

_Yes! I looked everywhere in the whole house, and checked outside the windows every time I could,_ he explained. _She's not here._

Carlisle watched them with curiosity. Edward was listening to them as well. Esme just looked sad and frightened, the same way she had when Lydia had stormed off. At any other moment, Kaitlyn would have felt bad for the vampire woman. She was doing her best to care for six teenagers. But now was definitely not the time to pity the woman.

"Lydia's disappeared," Edward explained to Carlisle. Esme looked even worse than she had before.

"Oh, my goodness!" she gasped. "How horrible! We have to find her!"

"She couldn't have gotten far," Rob assured them. Edward shook his head.

"I don't know about that," he said. Bella, who had grown to like Lydia, seeing as she was the only normal person around here, piped in.

"Well, you guys are vampires, right?" she said. "Can't you just go and track her?"

"Of course," Carlisle said, putting a hand to his forehead. "Why didn't we think of that?"

"You're just under a lot of stress," Kaitlyn assured the vampires.

"Edward and I will go," Alice chimed in. Edward looked at her with surprise. "So will Kaitlyn and Gabriel." When Gabriel turned to her as well, she tapped her temple and said, "I can tell."

"Fine," Gabriel and Edward said at the same time. Kaitlyn stood up and walked to the garage.

"We won't take a car," Alice said. "We'll never be able to catch her scent in there."

"But we can't walk; we'll never catch up with her!" Kaitlyn said. She seemed to question Alice's sanity.

"Of course not," Alice said, laughing slightly. "We'll run."


	14. Chapter 14

**HAI! It's me, Asha. I'm so sorry it's been so long, but Haydon's been doing a lot of stuff, so she couldn't write the chapter, so she just asked me to, like, yesterday, and so I did!** **Oh, and she also said she'd write, like, the next two chapters. So, here's chapter fourteen! (Wow, we need a life…)**

**This chapter is courtesy of Asha Childly**

Alice guided Kathryn and Gabriel outside to the porch. Edward followed behind them. She guessed he was making sure they didn't get lost on the way or something. When they got outside, Alice turned to face the other three.

"Alright," Alice said. "Edward and I are going to follow Lydia's scent. You guys are coming with us because…" She turned to Edward for help. He shrugged. "Because…because…"

"Because we know how to convince Lydia to come back since we've known her for at least a month?" Kaitlyn suggested. Alice smiled.

"Exactly," she said. She walked over and helped a reluctant Kaitlyn climb onto her back. She turned to Edward. "Ready?"

"Ready," Edward answered. He grabbed Gabriel, threw him on his back, and took off at an amazing speed, Alice by his side, before anyone could say anything. Kaitlyn held Alice in a chokehold, doing her best not to scream. Suddenly, Edward's phone rang.

"Don't pick it up!" Kaitlyn shrieked as he pulled the phone out of his pocket as he continued to run. He spoke quickly and quietly into the phone, then nodded and hung up.

"Alice, she has a car," Edward said. "She stole my car."

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes—What was it with vampires and cars?—when she got an itching in her hand. _Oh, no_, she thought. _Not now._ But it was happening now. _No! I swore I'd never draw again!_ But she knew that the vision would have something to do with Lydia. She just knew it.

Her only option was to draw it out in her head. Just as she had when they were in the basement of the Zetes mansion and Gabriel was stuck to that brain-eating crystal, she visualized her pastels and began to draw. To her luck, there was very little red in the picture. There was green again, and brown, but the main colour this time was grey. Grey everywhere. All different shades of grey. One thick line of grey, big clouds of grey, one shiny grey figure…

Finally, it was finished. And it was bad.

There was a car, a sliver car, and it was off the road. It had obviously veered off-road and hit one of the many trees, because there was smoke pouring out of the hood. Kaitlyn was certain that it was the car Lydia had taken from the Cullens' house. Kaitlyn's grip on Alice's neck loosened in her shock and next thing she knew, Kaitlyn was falling backward, off of Alice's back. She screamed and braced herself to hit the hard ground, but she never did. She opened her eyes to see that she was In Alice's arms.

"What's the matter, Kaitlyn?" Alice asked.

"I just saw Lydia!" Kaitlyn exclaimed. Alice looked around.

"Where?"

"In my vision!" Kaitlyn clarified.

"Oh!" Alice gasped. "What happened?"

"She crashed the car into a tree!" Kaitlyn explained.

"Oh, my gosh! Where?"

"Off the highway. That way, I think." Kaitlyn pointed ahead to the left. "But maybe we should just follow the highway. That way we won't miss it."

Alice and Edward were already turning toward the highway. They stayed on the edge of the forest so they could see without being seen. It didn't take long to spot the car with smoke pouring out of the hood. Kaitlyn could see a flash of horror as he saw the condition of his car, then he dropped Gabe and ran to the driver's side and looked in.

"Yeah, I see her in there," he called. Alice was at his side in a flash. So were Gabriel and Kaitlyn, only unlike Alice, they weren't _literally_ there in a flash. Edward tore of the door of his car and, with a little more destruction of the car, managed to pull Lydia out.

"Is she okay?" Kaitlyn asked. Gabriel looked at her incredulously.

"She crashed a car into a tree! Do you think she's okay?" he demanded.

"I _meant_ is she alive," she clarified.

"She's almost dead," Edward said. "We have to get her back to Carlisle right now."

"Will she make it?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Yes," Alice said. "I'm certain of it." She tapped her temple, like she always did when she'd seen something in one of her visions.

Edward took Lydia in his arms as Gabriel unhappily climbed onto Edward's back, and Kaitlyn climbed onto Alice. They sped off toward the Cullens' giant house. Kaitlyn leaned forward and put her chin on Alice's shoulder.

"Alice," she said. "How is Carlisle going to help Lydia."

"He'll…" she paused as though she was reluctant to answer. "He'll probably ask her what she wants." Edward came up beside her. "How's she holding out?"

"She keeps drifting in and out of consciousness," Edward answered. "She might be able to make her decision by the time we get back. If not, I'm sure he'll make an…exception."

Finally, the house came into view and Edward slowed significantly. Alice slowed down, as well.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"Those…_things_ are in the house!" he hissed.

"What are they doing there?" Alice demanded.

"I…they were worried about Bella." Edward explained.

"But they'll never let us change the girl!"

"I know!"

Once they were right outside the house, the two vampires dropped Kaitlyn and Gabriel and strode gracefully up toward the house. Kait and Gabe followed, each holding the other's hand.

"I wonder what's in there," Kaitlyn whispered. Gabe shrugged.

"Could be anything," he said. "Zombies?"

"Nah. Probably demons."

They walked inside and saw a number of tall, dark boys. Tall, dark, _shirtless _boys. Gabriel put a hand over Kaitlyn's eyes, which she pushed away.

"Who are you?" she demanded. One of the particularly tall ones.

"Who are _you_?" he asked. Kaitlyn walked toward the boys, Gabriel right on her heels.

"I'm Kaitlyn Fairchild. I've been living here for a few weeks."

"We're from La Push, the reservation on the coast."

"Why are you here?" Gabriel asked. Edward was smiling, proud that they had the guts to demand the business of someone in another person's house.

"We're just checking up on Bella. We frequently do."

"Well, she's here, she's fine," Gabe said, turning to look at Bella. "So you can leave now."

"But it would seem that there's someone new here, who doesn't seem as fine as Bella."

"No, she doesn't. But it's none of your business so you can split."

At that moment, Anna came bounding down the stairs.

"Hey! Who are you people?" She looked around and saw Lydia, still in Edward's arms. "Oh, my God! Lydia! What did they do to her?"

Anna turned her attention back to the boys and glared. She began to shake all over her body. Then, she seemed to glow a little.

Then, she burst into flames.

And a raven immerged.


	15. Author's Note

**Yes, I did it. I finally caved. But I really felt bad that I've left you hanging this long (actually, it's only been...three days _) But whatever. I just wanted to..._inform_ you that Haydon is unfortunately away doing documentary stuff in Toronto and I haven't actually heard anything about it. But hopefully all will go well and she will return to us soon enough. Please forgive to lack of updates, and I'm really, _really, REALLY_ sorry that I broke down like this and made a *shiver* _author's note_. POLLUTION TO THE STORY! DX**

**Anyway, forgive me, keep reading, and I'll update as soon as Haydon sends me her chapter. Thankx**

**_~Asha Childly :)_**


	16. Chapter 15

**Oh, my gosh~! Yay for me for finally taking some time to get to work! So, teeny problem. Haydon's, like, really, really busy, so she asked me to take over. I've been busy, too, but maybe not as busy. You know, school stuff. So, this is my shot at taking over. For the time-being anyway. If you liked it, or even hated it, please review! I'll love you forever!**

**This chapter is courtesy of Asha Childly**

Edward watched as the girl before him burst into flames and immerged as a raven. There were several things running through his mind at that moment. One of the main ones was, _Could these kids get any weirder?_ It looked like this was a new development, based on the looks of shock that was visible on everyone else's faces, including the other psychics.

The raven-Anna did a few laps around the living room, then dove at a few of the mutts' heads. She dug her new talons into the scalps, pulling away large tufts of hair and the occasional bloody chunk of scalp. A few of the Cullens left the room in case this got overly dirty—which, of course, it likely would—but Edward stuck around to see how this turned out.

The mutts were screaming as Anna pulled apart their heads, and Edward was curious how many would survive. Certainly, he could have explained to Anna that the mutts had nothing to do with Lydia's condition, that she had had a car crash, but he didn't. He just relaxed. If the blood started to stain, he figured he might interfere, for Esme's sake. She'd die (again) if she found blood stains on her white carpet.

Eventually, enough became enough and Edward interfered.

"Anna!" he called, cupping his hands to his mouth. The raven hesitated, then continued ripping the wolves' brains out. He sighed. "Anna!" he said again, this time louder. "Stop!" Anna finally stopped and flew a few feet away from the wolves. In a puff of smoke, she returned to her normal, human form and collapsed on the ground. Kaitlyn immediately ran to her side. She slowly sat up.

"What was that?" she asked. both Kait and Edward shrugged.

"You kinda turned into a raven, then started tearing out these guys' brains," Kait explained.

"They were getting blood all over the carpet," Edward added. One of the wolves was collapsed on the ground, twitching every so often. "Oh, and by the way," he added casually, "these guys had nothing to do with Lydia. She swerved off the road and into a tree in my car, which she stole."

Anna looked up, looking shocked. "Why would she do that?" she demanded. The remaining wolves were collecting the damaged ones and running out of the house as quickly as possible. "She must be more rational that! I mean, she couldn't have been that mad about not being included in the meetings! She must know that we're doing it for her safety!"

"She's only concerned about herself right now," Gabe said darkly. Bother girls jumped, not noticing that he had come in. "She's not worried about how all this crazy stuff effects her, only that she's not allowed to be part of it. That's the only reason she's being so stubborn about all this."

"We should probably join my family outside," Edward said softly. "They wouldn't want to come in here, and Carlisle with know what to do about the girl."

Edward stood, still holding Lydia in his arms. Kaitlyn got to her feet and helped Anna up as well. The three followed Edward out of the room and into the yard around the back of the house. The other Cullens were waiting there.

"Carlisle, we have to help her!" Alice was insisting.

"But what about the treaty with the wolves?" Esme asked quietly. Alice looked exasperated.

"It's her only chance to live! Maybe if we can just find a way around it—"

"Great," Rosalie interrupted. "Another human we're willing to risk our lives for."

"Fine! If you don't want to be around humans, leave!"

"Now we all know that's not going to happen," Edward said. "And it's not fair to just kick her out like that."

"Even if she is a total bitch," Bella said under her breath. Rosalie turned her ice-cold stare on her.

"You're one to talk," Rose spat back. Carlisle could see that this was getting ugly fast. And Lydia was beginning to stir in Edward's arms. Carlisle approached the girl just as she wailed in pain.

"Oh, my God!" she screamed. "It hurts so much!" He could see that she had several broken ribs and internal bleeding. She wouldn't last more than an hour if he didn't act now. He gestured for Edward to put her down on the ground, and he obeyed, supporting her head with his hand. Carlisle knelt next to her.

"Lydia, I know you're in a lot of pain right now, but I need you to make a big decision. Can you do that?" he asked. Lydia nodded weakly, clutching at her chest. " You have two options. You can stay this way, and live for about an hour more."

Lydia looked up at him with tears in her eyes. She was waiting for him to give her her second option. "Or," he said. "I can change you into a vampire, and it will hurt still, even more than it does now, but it will go away. The pain that is. Being a vampire never goes away."

He could tell that she was losing patience with him. "This is a big choice," he continued. "You'll have to feed off the blood of other creatures for the rest of your life, and you'll never be able to go back—"

"Oh, my God!" Lydia wailed again. "Please! Just do it! Do it right now!" Tears were flowing from her eyes. "Oh, my God it hurts so much!"

Carlisle looked down at the screaming girl, a pained expression in his eyes. He hated to end the lives of innocent humans, but his only other option was let her die on her own. A no-win situation.

So he bit her.


	17. Chapter 16

**Hey! Look! I posted a new chapter! Haydon's still not helping, but that's okay. We're doing fine on our own, right? I'm juggling about 5 stories and 2,000,000 projects right now, so expect a lot of my stuff to be a little slow. Anyway, I'm supposed to go to bed now or whatever, so enjoy this story. Oh, and I'm also sick. Hopefully I'll get worse and be able to stay home and work! 8D**

**This chapter is courtesy of Asha Childly**

Lewis watched in horror as Carlisle bit into Lydia's neck. It took all his self-control not to launch himself at the vampire. Sure, he knew that if they hadn't have done this, Lydia would die for sure, but he didn't want this for her.

"She'll be okay," Kait said, grabbing Lewis's hand. He wiped at moisture in his eyes. "Really.

"I-I know, I guess," Lewis mumbled. "I just…I don't like seeing her hurt."

"We should all go inside," Rob decided. Anna and Kait nodded and headed for the house.

"I'll go make some tea," Esme suggested.

"I'll take her to my study," Carlisle said.

The kids, joined by the rest of the Cullens, collected in the kitchen where they had some tea to calm their nerves. All of them were a little traumatized. Even Gabe was a little bit shaken.

"I'm going to go to my room," Lewis announced, gently placing his cup on the counter and heading up the stairs. When he was safely out of hearing range, Kaitlyn decided to ask what they were all thinking.

"Esme, what happens to people when they get…bitten?"

Esme sighed. Obviously it wasn't a topic she cared to talk about. Edward stepped away from his shaded corner and spoke for her.

"When humans get bitten by vampires, our venom poisons their blood," he answered. "They go through an excruciatingly painful transition as all of their blood 'dies off,' so to speak. When they wake up, there's no human blood remaining in their body, and they become…one of us." He seemed to look away as if ashamed by his own words, or by himself.

Lewis, on the other hand, was shaking with tiny, silent sobs. Kaitlyn watched him, fascinated. Finally, she snapped back into herself and touched his arm. He looked up, and she could see tiny tear streaks on his cheeks.

"Come on," she whispered, so that only he (and probably the vampires) could hear. She stood and, mechanically, Lewis followed her. She led him to the front porch, where she leaned against the railing. She held her mug between her hands and gazed upward.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Kaitlyn said as she gazed up at the night sky. The stars reflected in her eyes, twinkling on her pupils and lightening those strange, ringed irises. Lewis stood hesitantly next to her.

"Yeah," he agreed. It really was. The sky itself was a velvety, very dark blue. There wasn't much light pollution this far out into the middle-of-nowhere. The stars shone brightly, and the moon was perfectly full, as big as a dinner plate. But Lewis just couldn't enjoy it. He was so worried about Lydia, it hurt. Kaitlyn seemed to notice this, and she sighed.

"She's going to be okay," she promised. "Honest. Dr. Carlisle will take good care of her. She'll get through the transition and everything will be okay."

Lewis bit his cheek. He knew that was Kaitlyn said was true, but that wasn't really what was bothering him. "What if…" he started hesitantly, "what if I'm not good enough for her. You know, once she's immortal and whatever."

Kaitlyn looked back out into the sky. "You're too hard on yourself, Lewis," she said. "You're always going on about how you're not good enough for Lydia, but you know what?" Kaitlyn's voice grew with the intensity of her words. Lewis looked at her, waiting for the answer. "Any girl would be lucky to have you! You're smart and cute and really, really sweet, and a little bit geeky, but that's also pretty cute…." Kaitlyn broke off, realizing that she was drabbling. "Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you're awesome and none of us would ever want you to be anything else. And besides," she added, remembering her original point. "Even if Lydia doesn't like you after her change — not to say that she won't — we'll still think you're the greatest. And besides. She's only one girl. We're in Washington State! There must be a _million_ girls here!"

Lewis allowed a small smile. "You're right," he agreed. "And thanks. For all that stuff you said about me. I really do appreciate it."

Kaitlyn patted Lewis on the back. "You're welcome. And hey, if you ever want to talk about anything," Kaitlyn pointed at her ear. "I'm always ready to listen."

"Thanks," Lewis said. Forcing one last smile, he walked back into the house. Kaitlyn looked back out over the forest, but her eyes flipped back to one spot in a sort of double take. She could have sworn she'd seen something move. Then, from her left ear, she heard a rustling.

"Who's there!" she demanded, informing the being that she was aware of its presence. "Show yourself."

There was more rustling, and then silence. Slowly, Kaitlyn retreated back into the house. Just as she turned for the door, though, she nearly ran straight into Jasper, She let out a sudden shriek, then a second one as her tea spilt down her shirt. Edward looked down at her, and he seemed just as surprised as she was.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Did I startle you?"

Kaitlyn, feverishly fanning her shirt, replied, "Just a little bit!"

"I really am sorry." He seemed to be laughing. "We're just not used to people who can't sense my presence. Bella is the only person we're around on a regular basis who can't. It's sometimes hard to remember not to sneak up on humans." He flashed a toothy grin. "Natural instinct."

Kaitlyn glared at him and walked by him into the house, where she then retreated up the stairs and into her bedroom. Gabriel was waiting there on her bed. She glared at him, too. She still hadn't forgiven him for what he'd done behind her back.

"What do you want, Gabe?" she sneered. Gabriel looked hurt by her icy words.

"I wanted to apologize again for what I did," he said. "I was being an idiot. I can't even really tell you why I did it. I just…did. And it was wrong, and I'm a bad person, and I just want you to forgive me." He smirked. "Kaitlyn, can't you find it in your heart to forgive a jerk like me?"

Kaitlyn feigned pondering it for a while, then said simply, "No."

Gabriel dropped his head. "Well, it was worth a shot."

"You realize you didn't just upset me, but you also upset Emmett, and even Rosalie, because you seduced her with your…" Kaitlyn gestured at Gabriel, unsure of how to describe him. "Everything!"

"Can you really blame me for that?" he asked. Again, Kaitlyn's response was simple.

"Yes!"

"C'mon, Kait!" he begged. "I get what I did, and I even get that it was wrong! Isn't that enough?"

"I don't want to talk to you right now," she said, ignoring him.

"But — "

Kaitlyn jabbed a finger at the door. "Out!"

Gabriel slouched and left. Kaitlyn slammed the door behind him and flopped down on her bed. Why was life suddenly so confusing?


End file.
